Baltimore police were called to break up a monthlong protest at Johns Hopkins University (JHU), The Baltimore Sun reported. According to the Sun, seven protesters were arrested May 8 after they locked down a university building on May 1 as part of a monthlong sit-in to protest against private police on campus and the school’s contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Protests began April 3 at Garland Hall, a major administrative building on campus, and have continued for over a month. On May 1, students chained the building's doors shut, forcing its closure. Local affiliate Fox 45 News reported that some students had chained themselves to a stairway inside the building, as well.

Baltimore Police told the Sun they arrested five people for trespassing and two others for impeding vehicular traffic. Student protesters told the Sun that four students — two graduate students and two undergrads — were among the seven people arrested.

Sun reporter Colin Campbell captured the police action on video Wednesday morning, posting it to Twitter. In one video, protesters can be seen laying in the road in front of a police van; Campbell wrote that two protesters were arrested “after lying down in front of one of the police vans.”

“The trespassers were offered full amnesty by the university and given the opportunity to leave without being charged. Despite repeated requests and warnings by officers, some of the trespassers chose not to leave and insisted that they be arrested,” Baltimore police wrote in a Facebook post, noting they broke up the protest at the request of JHU. “As a result, five were arrested for trespassing. Two additional individuals were arrested outside for impeding vehicular traffic. There were no injuries reported during the arrests.”

“Early this morning, we made the difficult decision to call upon local fire and police personnel to help our university bring an end to the lengthy occupation of Garland Hall by students and outside activists, a situation that had become increasingly unsafe,” JHU president Ronald J. Daniels and Sunil Kumar, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, wrote of this morning's police intervention in a letter on JHU’s website.

“What began as a demonstration against university policies in recent days took a turn, as students and outside activists chained the doors closed, blocked exits and entrances to the building, harassed and intimidated our staff, and physically prevented fellow students from receiving essential services,” the letter continued. “This was no longer a peaceful show of civil disobedience, but instead a forcible occupation of a university building in contravention of the law and university code of conduct.”

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“In the intervening days, we worked around the clock to bring the occupation to a constructive conclusion,” the letter read. “We made open-ended offers to meet and provide amnesty to our students. We also undertook an intensive effort to communicate with student protesters, directly and through their families, friends, and mentors.”

“Invoking the help of law enforcement in ending an occupation involving our students is — and must always be — a last resort, one that we took today only in the face of mounting safety concerns and untenable disruption of essential student services and university activities,” Daniels and Kumar wrote.

At a press conference after the arrests, sit-in organizer Turquoise Baker said that the peaceful protest was a “final stand to demand Johns Hopkins University immediately stops the creation of a private police force, end its contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and actively push for the justice for Tyrone West and all victims of police brutality.”

According to an article published by the Sun last month, JHU has three contracts, mostly for educational programs, totaling $1.7 million with ICE, all of which are expiring this year. People have been pressuring the university to drop the contracts since last year, when a 2,000-signature petition was organized. The school has also been taking steps to have its own police force; the Maryland General Assembly approved an initiative that would allow for the force’s creation earlier this year.

The Sun noted that the protest’s turn to occupation had started to impact some campus functions in Garland Hall, including those of the Office of Student Disability Services, which some students use for accessible test taking.

"I support what they're doing and I believe it's correct they're challenging the administration," JHU junior Maddie Slack, who had donated to the protestors' GoFundMe and takes tests with disability services, told the Sun. "I just think it could've been done in a way that doesn't alienate people who need services from Garland."